So here's yet another right time, right place story. I was in the front yard, lurking around the mistflowers, looking for new species for iNaturalist. Then all of a sudden, a rather large black insect hovered low across a flower bed. I watched, waiting to get a photo and find out what I had. Then it landed. Rather, HE landed. Right next to another black moth. Ah, he'd found love on the side of a limestone rock. And he did so with his feathery antennae, which detect pheromones sent out by females. These are Grote buckmoths (Hemileuca grotei). I walked back by maybe 15 or 20 minutes, and they were gone.
Isn't nature just amazing?
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